Bedding supports are used to support portions of bed clothes preventing the weight thereof to bear upon the patient and cause discomfort. For instance, bedding supports are employed at the foot of a mattress to relieve the weight of the bed clothes upon the sleeper's feet, and supports are often used at the lateral portions of beds to relieve bed clothing weight at the upper body regions, such as often required with burn patients.
A variety of bed clothing supports have been proposed. Typical examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,577,089; 2,106,834; 2,602,171 and 2,618,789.
Prior bedding support devices have not met extensive acceptance for a variety of reasons, and it is an object of the invention to provide a bedding support which overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art devices.
An object of the invention is to provide a bedding support for use with a mattress wherein the mattress maintains the support in its operative condition, and wherein the width of the support may be readily adjusted by unskilled operators.
A further object of the invention is to provide a mattress oriented bedding support which is of economical construction, of light weight and high strength, adjustable in dimension, and readily maintainable in a sanitary condition.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a bedding support utilizing frame elements formed of metal rod encased within a cylindrical synthetic plastic cover, the elements of the bedding support being interconnected by synthetic plastic tubular connectors utilizing friction producing depressions engagable with the frame element to compensate for dimensional variations and insuring a firm frictional telescoping interconnection between the frame elements and connector to facilitate adjustment.
In the practice of the invention a pair of frame elements are maintained in adjusted assembled relationship by a pair of tubular connectors. The frame elements are formed by metal rod of the desired configuration, and the rod is encased within a synthetic plastic cover having a cylindrical configuration. The frame elements include linear upper and and lower sections which are, respectively, axially aligned and interconnected by synthetic plastic tubular connectors telescopingly receiving an end section.
The connectors employ depressions defined by a deformation of the connector material wherein the depressions extend into the bore of the connector for engagement with the frame element section cover insuring an effective frictional relationship therewith regardless of the dimensional tolerances existing between the frame element cover and the tubular connector.
By encasing the metal core of the frame elements within synthetic plastic, and utilizing a synthetic plastic connector between the frame elements, the bed support can be readily maintained in a sanitary condition as required in hospital usage. As the depressions defined in the connectors permit a frictional telescoping interrelationship between the associated connector and frame element end sections, dimensional variations that exist in the diameter of the frame section cover do not adversely affect the effectiveness of the connector to maintain the adjusted bed support width, and adjustments may be readily made by unskilled personnel.